Techniques are known for using a communication terminal such as a mobile phone or smart phone for message exchange, such as chat, with another communication terminal (for example, see JP 2010-140083 A (PTL 1)). Much of the application software (application) used in such techniques can exchange relatively short text simply and is provided with a user interface that makes message exchange with the other party easy to follow.
Some such applications also allow for the exchange of images as well as text messages. Images exchanged in this way include not only images shot by the user but also images of a variety of characters, illustrations, and the like that are prepared in advance by the application provider or the like and are acquirable by the user.